causes of failure and abandonment of projects and...

PM World Journal Causes of failure and abandonment of projects and Vol. VI, Issue I – January 2017 project deliverables in Africa www.pmworldjournal.net Featured Paper by O. Chima Okereke, PhD

© 2017 O. Chima Okereke www.pmworldlibrary.net of 16

Causes of failure and abandonment of projects and project deliverables in Africa

O. Chima Okereke, PhD

Introduction

The focus of this paper is the exploration of causes of failure and abandonment of project

deliverables. That is to investigate the causes that lead to the failure and abandonment of

deliverables obtained after the successful completion of projects. The deliverables have been

formally handed over to the customer or user for whom the project has been undertaken, and the

project closed. However, a few years after the apparently successful takeover of the deliverables

by the user, they fail and later are abandoned.

It is certainly normal for a product or system to fail after it has been produced. However, when it

fails and cannot be repaired because it could be damaged beyond repairs or the resources with

which to effect repairs are not available to the user, it is abandoned. Abandoned deliverables

and projects are not strange to nationals of developing countries. Indeed, our industrial

landscape is littered with abandoned project deliverables in various stages of disrepair. The

common thread running through each of them is that they cannot be repaired and therefore

abandoned for good. A report from the Abandoned Projects Audit Commission which was set up

by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 shows that 11,886 federal government projects were

abandoned in the past 40 years, that is from 1971 to 2011, in Nigeria. The number should be

much higher if projects from the various states are included. This lends some credence to the

assertion by Osemenan “that Nigeria has become the world’s junk –yard of abandoned and

failed projects worth billions of naira”[1].

As stated in the foregoing paragraph, much money is lost annually because of these failures.

Investors in such projects are the countries who own the abandoned projects, the UN, World

Bank, international agencies and communities. What is more, it leads to the economic

retardation of nations. How and why? It is simply because 5 or 10 years national development

plans are prepared by nations to help them climb up the “economic development ladder”. These

plans are comprised of projections and milestones of when certain projects, which are the

building blocks and components of the development plans, will be implemented. When

implemented, they help to enhance and facilitate the economy and industrial infrastructure of the

nations. The operation of the deliverable could constitute a base, “steps or rungs of ladder” on

which other new projects can be implemented. In the event of the failure of the first project, the

implementation of the second and subsequent projects cannot happen.

To reduce abstraction and dwelling in the theoretical in the foregoing explanation, consider that

the first project is the building and implementation of an electricity generating power plant of 6

x 250 megawatts. When it is completed, it will feed 1500 megawatts into the national grid. This

will help enhance the national power supply, especially its stability since the voltage and

frequency can become stable at the rated values. Besides, power supply capacity is increased

high enough to feed many users, businesses, and organisations. With such stable power supply,

Broadband Internet system can be introduced. Web hosting application in the Cloud can be used

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by businesses and companies. However, if the power plant is commissioned into operation and

within six months, most of the units fail and are abandoned, the power situation in the nation

cannot improve. The introduction of Broadband Internet, web hosting and Cloud cannot take

place. The nation is back to its pre-power project implementation condition. Progress and

economic development are not just at a standstill but are being retarded because of much money

that has been invested in the failed power plant to no effect. Again to be more specific in this

scenario, it is the case that at this point of writing, web hosting and Cloud Computing cannot be

used in most African countries because the power supply infrastructure to support the

technology is not available. It is only in multinational or large organisations, which have their

own power supply and not dependent on the national power supply, that such technology is in

use.

In preparing this write-up, research has been carried out, on some African countries, on some

failed and abandoned project deliverables since the objective is to discover the causes of failure

of already completed and handed-over deliverables. Some of the findings will be listed and later

discussed in depths. This is because it may be relevant to highlight the importance of the project

deliverable and then present actual, real-life events that led to their failure and consequent

abandonment. At the end of the presentation, an analysis and summary of causes of failure and

abandonment of the deliverables will be made. These will constitute lessons learned for our

education as investors in developing nations. Hopefully, they could provide guidelines for future

investments such that lessons from past failures could help prepare investors and planners for

success of new projects.

List of some failed and abandoned project deliverables

Some of the failed and abandoned project deliverables are listed as examples. Following this

listing, detailed discussion of each example will be made.

1. Failure of the Ghana-STX Building Project, a $10 billion housing project [1]

2. Failure of Egypt’s Toshka, New Valley Project, Failure of Egypt’s Toshka, New Valley

Project, Egypt’s $90 Billion South Valley Project [2][3]

3. Failure in the Telecommunications Industry in South Africa[4]

4. Microsoft’s Digital Villages[6]

5. Failure of Completed Water Projects[8]

6. Money 'wasted' on water projects in Africa[10]

7. “Unacceptable and Irresponsible Failures in the number of African Renewable Energy

Projects” – Rod Cargill [11]

8. Failed and successful Renewable Energy Projects in Nigeria [12][13]

Detailed discussion of the failed and abandoned project deliverables

1. Failure of the Ghana-STX Building Project, a $10 billion housing project [1]

Many Ghanaians were shocked when they heard in December 30, 2011 about the failure and

abandonment of the $10-billion housing project between the Government of Ghana and STX

Engineering & Construction Limited of South Korea.





Importance: The project was supposed to lead to the construction of 200,000 houses in Ghana

in five (5) years. The agreement was signed in 2009 and hailed by some as “the best thing ever

to happen to Ghana”. A 12-member government delegation led by then Minister of Water

Resources Works and Housing signed the STX Housing Project deal in 2009.

Failure: Information on its failure and abandonment was disclosed on Friday, December 30,

2011, by the Vice President John Dramani Mahama in the National Democratic Congress

(NDC) government when he talked with the Parliamentary Press Corp in Accra.

Causes of failure: From research findings, causes of failure of the project include the following:

Haphazard management of the project by the Ghanaian Government. Effective governance

apparently was missing as disunity and quarrels were reported between the Ghanaian and

Korean partners of STX Engineering & Construction Ghana Limited, the local subsidiary

of STX Korea. The CEO of the Ghanaian subsidiary was B.K. Asamoah.

Corruption was probably a contributory factor. For example, the consulting architectural

concept design allegedly prepared by a professor at the Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science and Technology (KNUST), on the orders of B.K. Asamoah, cost the company

about $21 million, when the Koreans claimed they could do it for only $5 million.

Poor planning and absence of credible feasibility studies.

Comment: This failure was just one of many failed major projects, not only in Ghana, but also

in other countries in the developing world. The Toshka New Valley project in Egypt is another

example which deserves a review.

2. Failure of Egypt’s Toshka, New Valley Project, Egypt’s $90 Billion South Valley

Project[2] [3]

Importance: The Toshka New Valley project was planned to develop agricultural production

and to create new jobs away from the Nile Valley by creating a second Nile Valley. The project

was meant to help Egypt deal with its growing urban population and was described as the “New

era of hope for Egypt”. It was intended to house more than three million residents and to

increase Egypt’s arable land area by 10%. [2]

The justification is that about 83 million Egyptians are densely packed into just 3 percent of the

land which is arable. Therefore, Egypt’s planners are undertaking many projects to redistribute

the population by creating new areas that can sustain life by diverting the Nile to the Sahara

Desert, in effect, creating new oases. The South Valley Development project, an attempt to

relocate up to 6 million Egyptians was started in the 1980s to convert one million “feddans”

(1.038 million acres) of the Sahara Desert into land for agricultural and industrial development

and secondarily to promote economic activity that would reduce high rates of unemployment

amongst Egypt’s youth. [3]

Causes of failure: However, it appears that not everything was taken into full consideration

during planning. For one, the Western Desert’s high saline levels and the presence of





underground aquifers in the area act as a major hindrance to any irrigation project. As the land is

irrigated, the salt mixes with the aquifers and reduces access to potable water.

In 2005, the government announced that it was abandoning the second phase entirely and that

the deadline for the project’s completion was extended to 2022. It is observed that canceling the

second phase did not increase the project’s chances of success, because so many initial targets

had not been met.

“(Toshka) was failing so badly in the first place that it didn’t make a difference to cancel the

second phase,” observes Conservationist Mindy Bahaa Eddin. She considers Toshka an example

of “disaster planning” in Egypt. She said that there is a greater need for stakeholder

consultations when working out details of such large-scale projects, so that potential problems

can be understood and resolved ahead of time. For example, she said, Toshka would have

caused great damage to the many ancient sites found in Kharga Oasis, in a similar way that

water is currently creating problems for sites in Fayoum.

Comments: Toshka has failed in the sense that the original plan is no longer being implemented

and probably cannot be implemented and now abandoned. However, it has been modified and is

still being implemented.

The failure and abandonment of ongoing or completed projects is not just a feature of

construction industry as it also occurs in other industries. An example is a failure in the

telecommunications industry in South Africa.

3. Failure in the Telecommunications Industry in South Africa[4]

Sentech was the first company in South Africa to launch a wireless Broadband service,

introducing services in the 3.5GHz band under the brand MyWireless in 2002. However, due to

financial constraints there has only been a limited rollout to parts of Johannesburg, Cape Town,

Durban, Pretoria and Nelspruit

Failure of the Sentech MyWireless and BizNet offerings[4] : Over the years, there have been

many failed telecommunications projects. Probably, some of the most high profile failures were

those by Sentech in its MyWireless and BizNet offerings.

Causes of failure: In October, 2010, Sentech could not collect more than 60% of the money it

was owed, its former leadership went aground amidst accusations of mismanagement, and the

auditor-general was concerned they could not pay their bills to creditors[5]. The MyWireless

product was terminated in 2009 after the company proved it was unable to compete with better-

resourced private-sector operators in the retail consumer market.

Comments: It is relevant that in spite of the failures they experienced, Sentech Limited has been

reorganised as a successful State Owned Enterprise (SOE) operating in the broadcasting signal

distribution and telecommunications sectors and reporting to the Minister of

Telecommunications and Postal Services. It is described as the signal distributor for the South

African Broadcasting Corporation and began operations in 1992. Probably, one of the positive

lessons that could be taken away from the story of Sentech is that in spite of a temporary failure,

a company could be turned around if it could be reorganized with changes in its management

and properly funded.



http://www.techcentral.co.za/tag/sentech



4 Microsoft’s Digital Villages in South Africa[6]

Genesis and importance: On 9th

March 1997, Bill Gates reportedly launched the “digital

villages” concept in the black township of Soweto, which made headline news by its mass

uprising in 1977. This township suffered and probably still suffers from extreme poverty. It was

reported in the Spokesman Review, a daily newspaper in Spokane, Washington. USA, that when

Gates visited in ’97 “a computer could cost as much as a house” and few people would think of

going online. The launched centre was South Africa’s first free-access “digital village,” funded

by Microsoft, local computer companies and US development organisation, Africare. The

concept was that the $100,000 computer package, housed in the Chiawelo Community Center,

should give the township’s poor residents a link to the information age. As part of the opening,

Gates observed a class from the local Elsie Ngidi primary school using computers for the first

time, before reportedly telling a crowd of 200: “Soweto is a milestone. There are major

decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind. This is to

close the gap.”

Failed and abandoned project, or is it? It was reported that even by 2013, there was hardly

any evidence of the “digital villages” across South Africa. “[They] worked well for a while but

collapsed as soon as the sponsors stopped funding the activities – the community had failed to

make the use of technology self-sustaining.” Adrian Schofield, Vice Chairman, Africa ICT

Alliance explained: “What should have been a model for others to follow became a failure. This

is a common outcome, where there is no long-term follow through.”[6]

Digital Villages Resuscitated? However, the report of the complete collapse of the concept in

South Africa appears not well founded. It was likely that the computer package, housed in the

Chiawelo Community Center might have failed but there are other digital villages, based on the

concept, in other areas of South Africa. Some of these will be discussed in the next paragraphs.

Equipping Rustenburg schools with technology – Digital Village: Microsoft, Comparex

Africa, Anglo Platinum, Telkom Foundation and the Digital Partnership joined forces through

the Kopano Joint Venture to equip three Rustenburg schools with technology. The computer

centres were officially opened and handed over to the school communities by Andile Ngcaba,

the Director General, Department of Communications during a ceremony at Sedibelo Middle

School in Moruleng, Rustenburg on 23 May 2003.

New Digital Villages: New projects have been set up at:

Raluombe High School, Mashamba, Limpopo

Modderbee Prison, East Rand, Gauteng

Tokologo Centre for Quadriplegics, Protea Glen, Gauteng

Siyabonga Telecentre, Orange Farm, Gauteng

Comments - The Microsoft-operated Digital Villages concept is a classic illustration of

planning a project, properly resourcing it, and providing resources for its follow-up when it goes

into operation. This is followed by regular monitoring of its performance to ensure that the

project deliverables do not fail. It could be seen as a model to be adapted according to local

requirements in providing foreign aided services to the developing world. [7]



http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/press/press-709.htm



5. Failure of Completed Water (Borehole) Projects

One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN on water is to increase access to

clean water and sanitation facilities for communities where such facilities do not exist. A failure

of water projects discussed here is the failure of projects on boreholes [8].

5.1 Failure of projects on boreholes

Project type: Failure of projects on boreholes and wells (developing community water

sources). The original report was compiled by Mr. Hylton Ferreira, CEO at International Project

Leadership Academy Namibia Ltd. International Donor Agencies

Importance of the water projects: An African, a Nigerian, who is the writer of this paper had

the experience of travelling for about 3 miles to fetch water with a small clay pot in the nearest

clean water source, in this case a spring. This was about fifty years ago when he lived as a boy

of between 9 and 11 years of age in a village in Okigwe district with his grandmother in the

South East of Nigeria. There has been a noticeable improvement in that there is now a pipe

borne potable water which is centrally located in the market place where water for household

requirements could be fetched in buckets and pots. Similarly, in many other rural areas of sub

Saharan Africa, it is the practice that people walk some miles to the nearest borehole to get clean

water for daily consumption in a small container which could be about four litres. This could be

the total water available to a family of about four five for the day. It is certainly not surprising

that international donor agencies have invested much money to help alleviate the problems since

water is necessary for healthy living and survival.

However, it is reported that as much as $360 million has been spent on building boreholes and

wells that failed and some were abandoned as they could not be repaired.

Causes of failure: Some causes of failure and abandonment of about 50, 000 boreholes include

the following:

Poor construction, lack of expertise and experience of maintaining the system

Poor supervision, failure caused by well users, and poor technology choice. In a report by

Casey and Carter of WaterAid Global, it is stated that: “People tend to make assumptions

about why water sources fail and blame a lack of spare parts, financing, maintenance

problems or climate change, for example. But often, the cause is not clear” [9]. Experience

shows that the reported causes of failure are partial and not complete.

Other causes of the failures include:

Operational malfunction,

Lack of support to ensure long-term sustainability,

Insufficient capacity building at local level,

Failure to ensure availability of sufficient resources,

Lack of project management training and support.



https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyltonferreira?trk=pulse-det-athr_prof-art_hdr



6 Money 'wasted' on water projects in Africa

This is a second report on water projects in Africa under the title: “Money 'wasted' on water

projects in Africa”. The report criticises donors, governments and non-governmental

organisations (NGOs) for installing boreholes and wells in rural Africa without providing

resources and facilities for their long-term sustainability. It is written by Annie Kelly appears in

Katine Chronicles blog [10]. It states that “Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on

clean water projects in rural Africa”.

As already reported in the earlier paragraph on the losses experienced, the International Institute

for Environment and Development (IIED) says up to US$360m has been spent on building

boreholes and wells that then become useless because they are not maintained or fixed when

they break down. As a result, 50,000 water supply points are not functioning across rural Africa.

The report continues, “only one third of water points built by NGOs in Senegal's Kaolack region

are working and 58% of water points in northern Ghana are in disrepair”. This was as in 2009

The original author of the report, Mr. Jamie Skinner, writes that water points are often built by

donors, governments and NGOs without fully consulting local people. As a result, they fail to

find out “just how much it will cost to keep the boreholes clean and functioning over a sustained

period of time”. He goes on to write that drilling a borehole in a rural community was analogous

to asking people to run a cooperative private water supply. He goes on to write: "There is no

point an external agency coming in, putting in a drill-hole and then passing it over to the local

community if they can't afford to maintain it over the next 10 or 20 years. There needs to be a

proper assessment of just how much local people are able to finance these water points. It's not

enough to just drill and walk away."

Comments: These problems have been encapsulated by the incident reported in Katine sub-

county in north-east Uganda. In 2007, before the African Medical and Research Foundation

(AMREF) and Farm-Africa began their development work in Katine, worms were found in the

polluted water supply at the village of Abia, next to the Emuru swamp. This was from a badly

constructed and poorly maintained shallow well, dug by a charity; it was full of soil and animal

faeces and was making local people sick. This is the sorry state of wells which have been

produced and passed on to the locals without any adequate and effective arrangement for its

maintenance and sustenance.

New operations strategy

AMREF developed the following strategy for their new operations

Training of local communities to operate and maintain the new safe water points that have

been established in the sub-county since the project began.

Water and sanitation committees have been set up to monitor the new boreholes that have

been dug and to contact newly trained hand-pump mechanics if one breaks down.

The committees meet regularly with village health teams to discuss needs

It is planned that everyone who uses the boreholes and wells will contribute financially to

their long-term upkeep.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa

https://www.theguardian.com/katine

https://www.theguardian.com/katine/gallery/2008/nov/14/one-year-on-water?picture=339098907

https://www.theguardian.com/katine/water



7. Unacceptable and Irresponsible Failures in the number of African Renewable Energy

Projects – Rod Cargill [11]

Rod Cargill was the director of the African Renewable Energy Forum held in Senegal. Actually,

his very words were: "The number of failed renewable energy projects in Africa over the last 20

years is unacceptable, and verging on the irresponsible. These failed projects have set back

development by raising aspirations and then failing to deliver."

Importance: Africa is rich in renewable natural resources: Africa has a great potential to

become a gold mine in clean energy through its abundance of renewable energy in solar and

wind resources. However, there are obstacles to overcome. These include wars, political

instability, poor infrastructure and financial resources.

Further, the World Bank reports that the renewable energy potential for Africa could provide

more than 170 gigawatts of additional power generation capacity; this is reportedly more than

double the current power-generation capacity in the continent. Such renewable projects could

avoid the production of some 740 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The total cost of such

projects is estimated at $157 billion. The projects are said to be economically viable if carbon

revenues are added, explains Massaba Thioye, World Bank senior energy specialist.

During the meeting in Dakar, Senegal from the 3rd

to 5th

September 2008, officers of the UN,

World Bank, and business leaders discussed strategies for “Clean Development Mechanism”

(CDM) projects on the continent. These are said to be greenhouse gas reducing initiatives that

industrialised countries can support as a compensation for their excessive emissions. A theme at

the conference was the possibility of engaging in future CDM projects under a successor

agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.

Problem of low investments in Africa

It is reported that Africa has received the least investment from the $7 billion annual CDM

market. Only 0.02% or 27 out of 1,156 CDM projects have been registered in Africa since 2002

when European Union began trading “carbon credits” through its Emissions Trading Scheme.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC), presented this information to the carbon forum.

Further, Sub-Saharan Africa could receive only 1.4 percent of the 3,700 CDM projects

worldwide as at September 1, 2008. Again, during the Africa Energy Forum in June 2008,

participants focused almost entirely on fossil fuel-based energy sources, according to World

Council for Renewable Energy Chairman Preben Maegaard. It was at this that Maegaard

complained that the forum lacked a renewable energy focus. This prompted the conference

director Rod Cargill to respond that “Africa's future energy growth is reliant on conventional

power sources and that the renewable energy hype has only provided set-backs”. He followed up

this statement with an email in which he wrote "To claim that Africa's problems of poverty

would be alleviated by relying on renewable energy is folly," "The number of failed renewable

energy projects in Africa over the last 20 years is unacceptable, and verging on the irresponsible.

These failed projects have set back development by raising aspirations and then failing to

deliver."



http://unfccc.int/

http://unfccc.int/

http://www.energynet.co.uk/AEF/index.html

http://www.wcre.org/

http://www.wcre.org/



Comments: Following the dismissive comments by Rod Cargill, it is considered necessary to

review energy status and power projects on renewable energy resources and their results. It may

be relevant to examine the causes of failures or successes in order to encourage or discourage

such investments.

8. Failed Renewable Energy Projects in Nigeria [12]

It is reported that renewable energy projects in Nigeria fail because of reasons which include the

following:

1. Poor planning and lack of project planning skills by planners. For example, it is said that

the planners lacked information such as :

The number of users to be supplied with the power generated

Suitable location for the planned solar parks for the target customers

How the power from the project should be connected to the grid.

2. Absence of adequate government support.

3. No arrangement made for the maintenance and management of the delivered renewable

energy supply

4. There is also the necessity for better government control of the renewable energy market.

Sir Emmanuel Onyejeose, the Editor, Nigeria Alternative Energy reported that there was

an influx of fake solar panels from China to Ghana. According to him this could have

been prevented if there had been an effective government control. He continues:

“Governments in Africa are still finding it difficult to officially adopt the technology,

and this has greatly affected its uptake,”

Nigeria’s Solar Projects Yield Both Failure and Success: An Example of a Failed

Renewable Energy Project in Nigeria [13]

Five years after its installation, a Lagos State government-sponsored solar project at the

Osinowo village of Bishop Kodji is not functioning. This was the first of its kind in the state.

The project was built to provide electric power for water pumps, fish driers, and street lamps,

giving the small fishing and boat-carving community's 5,000 residents easier access to

drinking water, securing their sandy streets, and strengthening their fishing economy. It was

hoped the photovoltaic system would power water pumps and fish driers in the community but it

has not worked. To help understand its geography, the island is just fifteen minutes by boat from

Lagos Island, one of the most developed and wealthiest areas of the country. "We don't know

what's going on," said Azime Anthony, a traditional leader in Bishop Kodji. "It only worked

for about three months, and then it stopped. All the places where we are supposed to have light

are dark and they never came back to try to fix any of it." Other projects on solar power and

alternative energy sources started by the Lagos State Government have not functioned

properly.

In an effort to reactivate the failed system at Bishop Kodji, in 2006 the Lagos State

government operatives stepped in and installed 300-watt photovoltaic (PV) panels at two

sites. The system was to supply power to the community building, the primary school, a





church, a mosque, and a water pump that was installed at the village well to lift water into

an overhead tank. This was according to a report on the project by Adenike Boyo, director

of science and technology at the Directorate of Policy, Programmes and Promotion for the

state of Lagos.

The project was lauded after this repair as a cost-effective triumph. "These people are

living off grid," said Tunji Olagunju, the engineer in charge of the Bishop Kodji project.

"There was no possibility of getting the national power supply from PHCN to them even in

the next 50, 60 years, but they too must benefit from government; and that is why Lagos

state decided that they had to give them alternative energy which, in this case, is solar."

Considering its relatively small budget, the project appeared to be the perfect solution to

the state's rural electrification issues. ''It costs about 150 million naira (about $1.2 million)

to connect each village to the national grid, while the solar energy project costs only about

10 million naira (about $83,000) per village," Kadri Hamzat, state commissioner of

science and technology, said in an interview with journalists at the project's launch.

After the initial success at Bishop Kodji, Lagos State officials introduced similar projects

in nine other communities. But problems soon emerged, the first, resulting from local

jealousies. Residents say that once news of their solar installation spread, people from

neighbouring communities came and sabotaged the solar units. State workers replaced cut

wires, only to be called out again when the panels failed a second time due to an

undetermined mechanical failure. Residents say state workers have not returned for routine

servicing since then.

"It wasn't something that we could predict," Olagunju said. "We have gone out several

times to fix the issues that we find. But most of the problems come from poor maintenance

by the residents," he said.

Residents, some of whom were trained to maintain the equipment, say state officials are to

blame. Dansu, one of the trained residents wrote: "We went to Alausa (the government

centre), we wrote letters that they needed to come. This thing is not working, because

when it was working we were all enjoying it and we were happy. We wrote and kept

persisting; they didn't answer us. We called over the phone and we even went there in

person; they never answered us."

The residents of Bishop Kodji still hope that the solar installations that promised to change

their lives will work again. "We are fishermen," Anthony said. "We catch fish, we treat

them, and then we sell them to our own people. We see that the government is trying to do

something for us. But we need them to do more. We need a hospital. We need a better

school. And we need light."

Successful Renewable Energy Project in Nigeria[13]

There are successful solar projects in northern Nigeria, particularly in Jigawa State. They

provide not only water but also a microenterprise centre. They provide power supply to

healthcare and educational services. According to the writer, the difference between

success and failure is summarised below:





It is not enough to install equipment; the power systems as well as the communities in

which they are built-need to be planned carefully, funded adequately, and sustained for the

long-term. The detailed account is given next.

A Bright Spot in Jigawa

In 2001, Ibrahim Turaki, who was then governor of Jigawa state, obtained funding

assistance from the Japanese government to launch a full-scale rural electrification project,

with additional funding assistance from the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID) and the United States Department of Energy. The sponsors

invested $450,000, more than five times the amount spent at Bishop Kodji. The Jigawa

project was implemented and maintained by the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a

nongovernmental organization based in Washington, D.C., that has been spearheading

solar projects in the developing world for 21 years. The SELF-directed scheme launched

with bigger goals and more risks than Bishop Kodji, and has yielded greater results.

"We wanted to create a comprehensive project that would touch every aspect of their

lives," said Robert Freling, executive director of SELF. "We provided power for a water-

pumping system that pushed clean water into the village. Women can turn on a tap and

have fresh water in the town centre without walking miles to fetch it. There is a

microenterprise centre, street lighting, lights for 20 homes, a portable pump that they can

take from field to field and water their crops. It's really remarkable."

The system in Jigawa powers vaccine refrigerators, and lights health centres, schools, and

religious centres. At night, because of the electricity, villagers can receive emergency care

in the health centre, primary schools double as adult education centres, and villagers gather

in the cool evenings under solar-powered streetlights.

The SELF website has it that as a result of the steady access to power in Jigawa, residents

were able to open a computer technology trade school and became the first state in

northern Nigeria to create a satellite-based broadband Internet and communications system

to link all local government districts.

"(After Jigawa), we got requests from pretty much every state in Nigeria looking to

implement something similar," Freling said.

Freling believes the difference between what happened at Bishop Kodji and what

happened in Jigawa is in both the planning and the maintenance.

"Sustainability is our primary concern," Freling said. "If you have a project that's well

thought out, funded, and executed, you have a project that should last not months but

years. There should always be a sustainability plan in mind from the beginning."



http://www.usaid.gov/

http://www.usaid.gov/

http://www.energy.gov/

http://www.self.org/



Analysis and Concluding Remarks

An Analysis of Causes of Failure and Abandonment

S/No. Failed and

Abandoned project

/deliverable

Cause of failure Remarks

1 Ghana STX

Building

This was due mostly to disunity,

lack of effective governance and

project control. Corruption was

also a feature

Project abandoned

2 Egypt’s Toshka,

New Valley Project

Poor planning and lack of

consultation with stakeholders

Original plan abandoned

but modified project is

continuing

3 Failure in the

Telecommunications

Industry in South

Africa: Failure of the

Sentech MyWireless

and BizNet offerings

Alleged mismanagement, poor

cash flow and inability to collect

debt and generate revenue.

Sentech with reorganised

management has been

turned around and now is

performing well

4 Microsoft’s Digital

Villages in South

Africa

It was reported that the

community could not maintain

the digital village in the

Chiawelo Community Center

and it failed. The concept was

alleged to have died in the whole

of South Africa

Research has shown that

digital villages run by

Microsoft in Rustenburg,

Raluombe, Mashamba,

Limpopo, etc. , were in

operation and did not fail

as alleged. Indeed, the

community cum partners

arrangement for operating

the digital villages by

Microsoft is so effective

that it could be a model

worthy of emulation.

5 Failure of

Completed Water

(Borehole) Projects

Local community lack expertise,

experience, resources for

maintenance, project

management training, etc. There

is also inadequate consultation

with local community before

they were hardly involved in

planning. There was no

arrangement to support the

delivered wales with resources

for their continued maintenance

after the takeover by the local

community

It is mostly when

community is consulted,

trained and involved, and

supported both during and

after the project that

success is achieved. Also

there is success in Ghana

that the water scheme has

been successful because

the government has been

involved with NGOs and

the communities,

providing ongoing

support to ensure success.





6 Failure of completed

renewable energy

projects

Poor planning, absence of

project management skills, no

consultation with locals, poor

government involvement, poor

or indeed no support for project

deliverables at the end of the

project.

Outstanding success has

been registered in Nigeria

where the project

deliverable is being

maintained by an external

agency in conjunction

with the community. The

agency is not just

supporting but operating

and maintaining the

delivered solar power

plant to ensure its

sustainability..

Some concluding comments to this research and analysis are necessary to ensure that as much

comprehensive information as possible has been presented.

1. Corruption: Generally in business and official dealings in Africa, most failures are

blamed on corruption. There is no running away from the fact that corruption causes a lot

of harm in business, social and economic development of Africa. It is however

instructive that throughout this research, it is only once, that is the failure of STX

building project, that corruption has been highlighted as contributory to the failure. Even

in this case, there was ineffective governance and haphazard control of the project by the

government. It was likely that if there was effective control with checks-and-balances

built into the administrative structure of the project, the failure might not have occurred

and the reported corruption could not have happened.

Again while it is not being proposed here that some of the failures recorded in many

projects were not due to corruption, the point being made is that it is a weak and loose

establishment, where indiscipline thrives, that provides the fertile ground for corruption

to germinate, grow and flourish. This observation is borne out in the experience in

Senteech in South Africa. Their flagship product, MyWireless failed and was abandoned

because of poor cash flow, probably corruption, inability to collect revenue from sales;

these were all pointers to a weak and ineffective administration that happily had to go.

The new administration with its discipline turned around the company, and today

Sentech is regarded as a successful company.

2. Lack of skills, absence of training and ignorance of project management

knowledge: Most of the failures were recorded as a result of lack of skills, poor planning

and absence of project management training. Indeed, almost all failures are traceable to

these causes; the failure of the STX in Ghana, failure of Toshka, failure of the

telecommunication services in South Africa, the alleged failure of the digital villages,

failure and abandonment of the boreholes, failure of the renewable energy projects. The

fact was that the project deliverables failed because the users had no clue of how to

maintain and keep them in operation. It does stand to reason that a competent workman

is well trained otherwise he will not have the knowledge that delivers the competence.





3. Lack of resources, failure to include the local community in planning, project

implementation, operations and no arrangement for maintenance and operation of

the project deliverables: Research shows that where the communities were involved in

the project and operation, with their operatives were trained, and resources provided for

the operation of the taken over project deliverable, success is recorded. The Microsoft

business plan for the Digital Village, the AMREF operated bore holes, and the SELF-

operated solar power plants in Jigawa, Nigeria, are all success stories because the local

communities were involved in the planning, participated in the project, involved in the

operation and provided with resources on the operation of the deliverable after take-over.

In addition, the external support is not completely removed from the scene.

4. In effect when any foreign aid service is being taken to a developing nation, for example,

it is not encouraged to buy the equipment and drop it with the community and go home.

No, that is a recipe for certain failure. This is one of the main findings of this research.





References

1. Hanachor, M. E. (2012). Community Development Projects Abandonment in Nigeria: Causes

and Effects. Journal of Education and Practice, 3(6), 33-36.

2. William Yaw Owusu “STX: Tale Of A Failed Project” General News, Daily Guide, 10

January 2012 16:31 CET

3. Andre Fecteau : “On Toshka New Valley's mega-failure “ Thu, 26/04/2012 -

by Egypt Independent.

4. David Russell Schilling, Egypt’s $90 Billion South Valley Project, By: January 10th, 2013

5. Rudolph Muller “Failed telecoms projects in SA” - March 24, 2011 in “mybroadband”

Candice Jones- Deputy Editor, Opinion, Top, TechCentral , 28 March 2011.

6. Kathryn Cave, South Africa: Why Have All the Rural Tech Projects Failed? Editor, IDG

Connect, June 21 2013

7. Microsoft Digital Villages, https://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/community/digital.htm

8. Hylton Ferreira: “ Failure of projects on Boreholes and wells (developing community water

sources), at Jul 2016 Cost : $360M”, CEO at International Project Leadership Academy

Namibia Ltd. International Donor Agencies – Africa, Nov 15, 2016

9. Casey and Carter, WaterAid Global

Annie Kelly. “ Money 'wasted' on water projects in Africa”, Thursday 26 March 2009

13.15 GMT , The Guardian, reference:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/katineblog/2009/mar/26/water-projects-wasted-money

10. Helfrid M.A. Rossiter, Peter A. Owusu, . et al “Chemical drinking water quality in Ghana:

Water costs and scope for advanced treatment” Science of The Total Environment, Volume

408, Issue 11, 1 May 2010, Pages 2378–2386

11. Worldwatch Institute – vision for sustainable growth

African Renewable Energy Gains Attention

Ben Black, Worldwatch Institute – vision for sustainable growth, African Renewable Energy

Gains Attention

12. Kenya's energy revolution: full steam ahead for geothermal power Reference:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/nov/22/kenya-

geothermal-power-energy-revolution

13. Mikkel Ostergaard/Panos , “Study breaks down Nigerian solar power failure”; Ref: Nigeria:

Study Breaks Down Nigerian Solar Power Failure, published in All Africa, 19 January 2016

Reference: http://www.scidev.net/global/energy/news/nigerian-solar-power-failure.html

Bolanle Omisore “Nigeria’s Solar Projects Yield Both Failure and Success” written for

National Geographic News, November 3, 2011



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http://www.egyptindependent.com/staff/andre-fecteau

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https://www.techcentral.co.za/category/opinion/candicejones/

https://www.techcentral.co.za/category/opinion/

https://www.techcentral.co.za/category/top/

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyltonferreira?trk=pulse-det-athr_prof-art_hdr

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00489697/408/11

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/



About the Author

O. Chima Okereke, PhD, PMP Herefordshire, UK

Dr. O. Chima Okereke, Ph.D., MBA, PMP is the Managing Director

and CEO of Total Technology Consultants, Ltd., a project management consulting company

working in West Africa and the UK. He is a visiting professor, an industrial educator, a

multidisciplinary project management professional, with over 25 years’ experience in oil and

gas, steel and power generation industries. For example, On December 26th

2013, he completed

an assignment as a visiting professor in project management; teaching a class of students on

Master’s degree in project management in the Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok,

Russia. In August and September 2013, he conducted an innovative, and personally developed

training programme for seventy six well engineers of Shell Nigeria to enhance the efficiency of

their operations using project and operations management processes.

Before embarking on a career in consulting, he worked for thirteen years in industry rising to the

position of a chief engineer with specialisation in industrial controls and instrumentation,

electronics, electrical engineering and automation. During those 13 years, he worked on every

aspect of projects of new industrial plants including design, construction and installation,

commissioning, and engineering operation and maintenance in process industries. Chima

sponsored and founded the potential chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) in Port

Harcourt, Nigeria, acting as president from 2004 to 2010.

Dr. Okereke has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of

Lagos, and a PhD and Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of

Bradford in the UK. He also has a PMP® certification from the Project Management Institute

(PMI®) which he passed at first attempt. He has been a registered engineer with COREN in

Nigeria since 1983. For many years, Total Technology has been a partner for Oracle Primavera

Global Business Unit, a representative in Nigeria of Oracle University for training in Primavera

project management courses, and a Gold Level member of Oracle Partner Network (OPN. He is

a registered consultant with several UN agencies. More information can be found at

http://www.totaltechnologyconsultants.org/.

Chima is the publisher of Project Management Business Digest, a blog aimed at helping

organizations use project management for business success. Dr. Okereke is also an international

editorial advisor for the PM World Journal and PM World Library. He can be contacted at

[email protected] or [email protected].



http://www.totaltechnologyconsultants.org/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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